Newt News

Newt OS Gnome 3.1.3 is now available for download. This release includes several package updates, most notably Firefox and Flash player. However, this release also brings some interesting changes.

New in this release is the inclusion of the Gnome Classic session option, which provides a more traditional desktop, blending the interface of Gnome 2 with the technologies of Gnome 3. Additionally, the latest version of the Midori web browser is included, offering a great alternative to Firefox or other larger browsers. Midori uses significantly less RAM, and offers a straightforward browsing experience.

So, what's in store for the next release of Newt OS Gnome? The first thing to note is that Newt OS Gnome is being released on a monthly schedule, and this is the third release to follow that release schedule. Newt OS Gnome will continue to be released on a monthly basis until November, which will begin a bi-monthly release schedule. At that point, openSUSE 42.1, the next release of openSUSE, will have been released, and development will begin on Newt OS Gnome 4, which will be based on 42.1. Newt OS 3 will enter the final phase of development, at which point releases will only include package updates and bug fixes if needed.

All of this means that 3.1.4 will be an important release. Here are some of the current goals:

Implement an improved default theme and icon set

Include important Gnome Shell extensions, including one that allow users to choose Shell themes.

And of course, include updated software

Many of these goals were originally meant to be achieved in time for this month's release, but with school starting, time has been short (I'm writing this 2 days after the release) and they simply could not be included. If these goals are met before the next scheduled release in early October, then 3.1.4 may be released early. That depends on time available for testing, and whether or not these goals can even be accomplished.

As you probably know if you've looked at the homepage of this site, you know that there are currently two versions of Newt OS, one based on Gnome, the other using LXDE. Both of these desktops are great, offering smooth, functional user experiences. However, the KDE desktop, one of the most popular desktops in the Linux world, has been largely ignored by me. I began building Newt OS with the intent to offer only one desktop, Gnome. That changed when I discovered that LXDE was available to use with SUSE studio, and was much more friendly to customization than Gnome. LXDE provided a more traditional desktop than Gnome Shell, making Newt OS appeal to a larger audience.

I used to loathe KDE. Certainly it was unprovoked hatred, I installed it on Ubuntu 14.04, and found that every theme that worked with LXDE, Gnome, and Unity was useless with KDE; I quickly uninstalled it, and didn't touch it again until about a month ago. I downloaded Kubuntu 14.04, and after using KDE in a more friendly environment, I began to experiment with building a KDE based appliance on SUSE Studio. I have come to a point where that appliance is remarkably polished, and I have decided to publish it.

As I do not have much experience with KDE themes or applications, Newt OS KDE will be published as a testing release. At its core, it is a stable copy of openSUSE 13.2, but for those of you who are among the first to try it, be prepared to encounter some issues. One such issue is that I cannot find what file controls the window theme, which means that the Oxygen window decorations will be default despite my efforts to change that. Second, there are some GTK applications that may not be themed correctly, in addition to the overall Qt theme not being very original. I would appreciate some feedback on what can be improved.

So, the question you're all wondering; what does it look like? Well, here it is:

Newt OS KDE uses the tried and true KDE Plasma 4 desktop, and will continue to do so until Plasma 5 is available as a default option in the openSUSE repositories.